The Power of the Kilt

[longhuntr74]

I'm one of those people that confuses many trying to figure out where I'm from originally. I'm originally from Western New York, but have been in the military and living in Alabama, North Carolina, Missouri, and Louisiana now for the past 13 years. I have some northern nasal sound, some southern drawl, and that military accent too (which is somewhat southern, but not specifically). To add to all that, I too have a bit of a speech impediment...lots of speech and ENT issues as a young child. Really keeps people guessing.

[Lyle1]

I remember reading somewhere years ago that the Ohio accent is the "American" accent people want for newscasters and the like. Apparently Ohio (or Ahia, where I am from in W. Pa.) has the quintessential American sound. one of those kind of sad things when everyone sounds the same and regional accents get lost. BTW, even though I am a "yinzer" by birth, I have worked hard to lose the sound...

Parts of Ohio have a very non quintessential American sound that is very distinctive. For example, the words "roof" and "root" are pronounced with the same "o" sound as the word "wolf."

I am also from W. Pa. which is considered the smallest dialectical region in the US. Lots of remnants of the Scottish accents of early settlers.
I worked hard to lose that accent, with some success. The bad news is that I am slipping back into it as I get older.

[Pleater]

When I get het up, or drunk - I lose about 300 years and start to sound like the King James version of the bible - on a really bad day.

The grandmother we lived with up until I was about 7 years old was brought up way out in the country and as I used to sit with her a lot - my mum had my two younger siblings to look after and grandma was an invalid due to her ill health, so older forms of speach were what I though of as normal.

I 'get' the jokes in Shakespeare's plays - that is really unnerving for Eng Lit teachers teaching 11year olds.

I can read Chaucer in the original fairly easily - I only have problems when they write it down in a funny way - funnier way than usual, that is.

The o in wolf IS the same as in roof and root - sort of 'ou' sound - isn't it?

Any pressure to lose dialect and accent and become non regional is rather sad and silly, I think - though not as sad and silly as those people who say that they can't understand what is being said to them. They always understand fast enough if you say something rude in return.

I love the lingo the little blue men in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books use - I have the feeling I might get on with them rather well.....

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[macwilkin]

I'm one of those people that confuses many trying to figure out where I'm from originally. I'm originally from Western New York, but have been in the military and living in Alabama, North Carolina, Missouri, and Louisiana now for the past 13 years. I have some northern nasal sound, some southern drawl, and that military accent too (which is somewhat southern, but not specifically). To add to all that, I too have a bit of a speech impediment...lots of speech and ENT issues as a young child. Really keeps people guessing.

There used to be a joke about how airline pilots would speak with a West Virginia drawl to mimic Chuck Yeager.

T.

[NewGuise]

I 'get' the jokes in Shakespeare's plays - that is really unnerving for Eng Lit teachers teaching 11year olds.

I can read Chaucer in the original fairly easily - I only have problems when they write it down in a funny way - funnier way than usual, that is.

I grew up mostly in Saskatchewan, Canada, with parents who spoke Low German to each other (not to the kids), and I understood the jokes in Shakespeare. I played Bottom (in A Midsummer Night's Dream) at age 10 - smallest kid in the cast, with the biggest voice. And I grew up to become a medievalist specializing in early English theatre. But I've always been more comfortable with Yorkshire dialect than with Chaucer's. Explain that to me, please...

[Tetley]

...
I love the lingo the little blue men in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books use - I have the feeling I might get on with them rather well.....

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Crivens! Oh waley, waley, waley, not "the accent"!

[Drac]

I 'get' the jokes in Shakespeare's plays - that is really unnerving for Eng Lit teachers teaching 11year olds.

I can read Chaucer in the original fairly easily - I only have problems when they write it down in a funny way - funnier way than usual, that is.

My wife masters is in history (specializing in Elizabeth I court life) with a minor in English Lit. While I enjoy Shakespeare's work I didn't start to really get it until she started "civilizing" me. You should also here her speak in Middle English! She can rattle off the opening on the Canterbury Tales in the original dialect easily!!!!

A couple years ago I had her favorite Sonnet (130) done by a professional calligrapher using a copy of a document published by Shakespeare.

Jim

[Pleater]

Why, Yorkshire is God's own county - having been born scarcely a gargoyle's spit from York minster myself naturally I regard all things Yorkshire as having a certain natural superiority.

I manage to live well enough down here on the coast, but I do wish it were possible to buy such things as Yorkshire ham here, however they don't let the good stuff over the border, they keep it all for themselves.

I think it would not be my accent, more the sheep liniment which would attract the Nac Mac Feagle.

I wish we had been able to study Shakespeare earlier, and act the plays - the teachers seemed to thing we would not understand them, yet when we were taken by the school to see Romeo and Juliet performed on stage and we cheered and hissed and wept - the teachers and minders were really angry that we did not sit in respectful silence. I think that we did not know we were supposed to.

The strange thing was that when we did react - the players went from being bored to acting their socks off. Maybe they prefered an unsophisticated audience.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: